Judenrein and Allium cearuleum

Judenrein

In America the roadside signs announcing one’s entry to, say, Redneckburg have the place’s population on them. In Germany, (the last time I was there anyway) they have the times of church services. During the Nazi era they used often to have the proud addition ‘Judenrein’; literally ‘Jew-purified’; that is to say, the town had not a single Jewish inhabitant; they’d all been rounded up and taken away.

The German government (we’re talking now, 2015, again) has just set up a committee of distinguished experts to combat anti-Semitism. There is not a single Jew on the entire committee; it is Judenrein.

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Allium cearuleum

            Let’s call this one ‘Purple Sensation’:
            It’s not quite the right appellation,
            But the full Latin handle,
            An orthographer’s scandal,
            Might cause you some consternation.